In what ways can data collection negatively affect you?

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If someone hacks into the data Google has about its users, they can use that data in a variety of ways, none of which you'll like. Even though large corporations like Google and Facebook are constantly looking for and finding ways to improve data security, that data does get stolen from time to time.

Considering everything Google stores and knows about you, it would be a bad idea for that data to fall into the wrong hands.

Your house on Google Maps
Google Street View puts your location online for anyone to see and australia whatsapp list people's privacy and peace without their knowledge or consent. Just type your address into Google Street View and you'll easily find your home, captured on the date the Google car passed by with the camera.

Smart Homes have been becoming increasingly popular lately. I'm not kidding when I say that in less than 10 years we will all have smart homes and apartments that will spy on us everywhere and whenever they arrive.

If you already use the Google Home personal assistant, then you must know that Google knows when you turn lights on and off, set the temperature, set alarms, write shopping lists, and other details. A whole new level of spying, right?

Advertising
I know, advertising is getting more and more intrusive and people are using ad blockers more and more. Have you ever wondered how it is possible that personalized ads are following you around the internet? How is it possible that yesterday you clicked on a red dress on Asos without thinking, and today you are bombarded with red dresses in all designs and brands?

Advertisers make money off of you, Google makes money off of advertising…a win-win situation for everyone except you. The more they know about you and gather more useful information, the easier and faster they can serve you ads that might interest you.

Many adults are already resistant to them or use ad blockers, but children...children are a completely different problem.

Selling personal information to advertisers
Google might not be in an awkward position if it were discovered that they were selling personal data to advertisers, but apps have nothing against it, and in fact, they often practice it as a method of making money.

If the app you download to your phone from the Play Store is free, there's a good chance it's selling your data to advertising companies, and you agreed to it when you downloaded the app and clicked on all those permissions that you didn't even read.

Selling user data is actually the most popular and fastest way to monetize apps.

Avoiding Google
Some people deliberately avoid everything related to Google precisely for reasons of data collection and tracking, but they are not even aware that everything is owned by Google and that not everything bears the Google name.

Blogger, Waze, YouTube, Picasa, Tenor (GIFs), and Fitbit are just some of the services, platforms, apps, and businesses owned by Google that routinely collect your data for them. The list is long, but the conclusion is short – you can't escape Google.

Yes, the fact is that Google has gone from being a search engine to the Big Brother of the internet that sees everything, tracks everything, and knows everything, and we users feel like we're in the Truman Show, unaware that hundreds of thousands of eyes are following us, observing, and recording our every step and move.

Google helped develop the internet as we know, use, and love it today. But it all comes at a price – the price of personal data, and to a greater extent than you might imagine.

Of course, there are strategies and measures you can take to make Google collect as little about you as possible or to avoid Google and its services, but what exactly have you achieved? Nothing except making your life a little more complicated and putting your data in the hands of another tech giant like Apple or Microsoft.